Who knew that January and February could be SO EXCITING?

I'm a sun lover. Winter is generally not my favorite time of year. Everything is cold and gray and should the sun dare to show its face, it's pale and not at all hot. As soon as the excited buzz of Christmas fades away, I start loathing the winter, impatiently tapping my foot at every freezing forecast and whining as only someone who has been a fourteen-year-old girl can do. Scattered throughout the day are all sorts of grumblings:


"I don't waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaant to get up. It's cooooooooooooooooold and daaaaaaaaaaaaaaark."


"Can you pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease make me tea? I'm freeeeeeeeeeeeeezing."


"Why is it so daaaaaaaaaaark in here? Where's the suuuuuuuuuun."


It's unpleasant. Particularly for the likes of, you know, my family, who are forced to listen to the moaning day in and day out for the duration of January and February.



But this years, it's been a little different.


Yes, I still stay under the warm covers in the morning until the LAST POSSIBLE MINUTE, and I still drink some sort of hot beverage ALL DAY LONG, but we've had so much excitement around here that I've hardly had time to do the griping I normally do.


First and foremost, Eric is home! Eric is HOME! ERIC IS HOME! It is just as awesome as I knew it would be, and we are very glad to have him here, on the right side of the ocean.


Then we got a piano. It's a Free-From-Craigslist, a not-so-rare and not-so-nice variety of piano that can be found from a not-so-exclusive online retailer around the country. Being a world-class Free-From-Craigslist, it came completely out of tune and well-equipped with keys in need of refinishing. I took a few pictures of the kids playing on it the first day and realized that it also came with a ghost:

Seriously. Look at that picture. And this one:

There is clearly a woman watching Rhys play the piano. I couldn't see her with my bare eyes; she was only showing up in photos. I thought maybe it was a weird reflection of Rhys, so I made her move. No dice. The ghost woman was still there:

She seems friendly enough, though, so she and the monster in the bathroom door jamb can stay.

In addition to the arrival of the piano and the ethereal woman who lives in it, these cold, gray months of winter have brought the start of swimming lessons. I suppose there's no better time to start swimming than in the dead of winter. The kids love it, and I think all three of them will be little fish in no time at all.

I always knew we'd be on our way to the ER for a play-related injury at some point. I just didn't expect it to be Desi, and I didn't really anticipate a head injury. I guess I assumed it would be Ben with something more like a broken leg. But no, it was Desi with a big bump on the head. Who knew that playing basketball at the gym with Daddy could be so dangerous? Apparently it is:

She's fine, but we took her to the hospital just to be sure. One CT scan later, and she was given the all clear. The adamant declaration of "I DO NOT have an EGG ON MY HEAD" further proved that Desi was just fine.

Nothing makes these dreary winter months more exciting than a snow day. Or ten. It's out of control. And it's snowing again rightthisveryminute. We're supposed to get another foot overnight. I might mind if I were required to drive to work, but I'm not. As far as I'm concerned, if it's going to be this cold and gray, then it might as well be snowing. And snowing it is. It's really quite lovely.

Once your fingers are numb and you can't feel your feet, what else is there to do but drink hot chocolate and play board games. And that's what we do. Rhys wanted to play Monopoly, so we played: Team Eric/Ben, Team Jenni/Desi, and Team Rhys. We all know how long and drawn out Monopoloy can be, and as was inevitable, Rhys started to get bored after awhile. Until she got bored, though, she was doing really well. Here is Rhys's spread:

Here's mine:

Yep, that's right. She had three monopolies and a couple of hotels, and I had four mortgaged properties and a single dollar. This does not bode well for the super-competitive likes of me.

To top off the excitement of the past couple of weeks, Rhys lost her first tooth today. She's been showing her wobbly tooth to anyone and everyone. She had a rather nasty cold last week, and I'm sure it's because she's had her hands in her mouth for the past two weeks wiggling that tooth. Despite her excitement, Rhys managed to think her way into a corner about the logistical nightmare being the Tooth Fairy must be. Yesterday we had this conversation:

Rhys: Mommy, will the Tooth Fairy come when my tooth falls out?

Jenni: Of course.

Rhys: How will she know when it falls out?

Jenni: She just knows. Like Santa Claus.

Rhys: I know how she knows when kids' teeth fall out.

Jenni: Oh, really? How does she know?

Rhys: She has a computer, and that's how she knows. Her computer tells her when someone's tooth falls out.

Jenni: So her computer will tell her when your tooth falls out?

Rhys: Yep!

So even the Tooth Fairy has bought into the technological advancements of the late 20th and early 21st century.

Her tooth fell out at lunch today. I happened to be at the school to help out with their Valentine's Day festivities, so I was sitting there when she opened her mouth to take a bite of her sandwich and her tooth fell out. We shared the excitement with the principal and the guidance counselor, who happened to be on lunch duty today. It was all very exciting, indeed. And now she whistles just a little tiny bit when she talks. And provided the Tooth Fairy's computer is not effected by the ton of snow that's falling, she'll have been alerted (Via e-mail? AIM? Maybe the Tooth Fairy is on Facebook? Rhys didn't have all of those details worked out.) and will be on her way to our house as soon as a certain munchkin is in bed.

So it's been satisfyingly surprising around here for the past month, and I'm hoping it keeps up. The absence of dull moments will just make the summer get here that much faster, right? Especially not with this kind of cuteness around: